The Kindness of Strangers
by Cookirini
Summary: Usagi and ChibiUsa, the night after a battle with the four sisters. The little girl is afraid and alone, but comfort comes from the most unlikely of places. Oneshot, post anime episode 68.


Tick-tock, tick-tock. The clock struck two.

The small, pink-haired walker sighed as she padded quietly down the stairs, careful not to awaken the other people in the house. With her was a teddy bear, her sole source of comfort after her beloved Luna P, who was also asleep. It was just as well; if any of her caretakers knew she was the only one awake, they would have marched her straight back to bed. After all, to them, it just wasn't right for a little girl to be up past her bedtime.

But Chibi-Usa couldn't sleep. No matter how hard she tried, nothing could calm her down. Nothing could erase from her memory what happened earlier that day.

_"It's the little rabbit...It's time to dispose of her!"_

"_Running is futile, brat. There's nowhere to go!"_

Most kids her age would have been asleep, having been tucked into bed by their parents in safe surroundings, with the assurance that nothing bad could happen to them. The nightmare would pass for them, and in the morning it would be a brand new day, as if the nightmare had never happened.

She didn't even have that, simply strangers whom she had to force to love her. She had no bed to lay in that was her own, no city anywhere on Earth to call home. All she had were four women coming after her, vowing that she would never see her beloved mother or father again if they had their way, no matter if she was just a kid. They somehow knew where she was, what she looked like, how she was dressed. Somehow, they knew how to find her, and no place was safe anymore, not even the house she ended up living in. She was alone, and unable to fall asleep, lest the women who were after her came and did what they had promised to do to her time and again. Night after night, she would wake up and think of what would happen to her, what had happened to her. How desperately alone she was without friends or family.

There was no one to protect her, and nothing she could do to stop the never-ending and uncertain hell she found herself in, except wait for the enemy to finally come and kill her.

"Who's there?"

Chibi-Usa's heart froze as she heard the voice come from behind her. She began to tremble as the footsteps started coming towards her; she clutched her teddy bear in the vain hope it would protect her from the monster that approached.

"...Oh, it's you." To her surprise, it was Usagi's bun-plaited head that suddenly came into view. "What in the world are you doing up right now, Chibi-Usa?!"  
"...Me!" At this, Chibi-Usa brought her defenses back as soon as she recognized the teenager, and she stuck her tongue out. "What about you?! Don't you have school in the morning?"  
"I could say the same for you," Usagi huffed as she plopped down on the couch, holding a large bowl of steaming food, chopsticks and a can of papaya juice. "Plus, I'm not the one who ran off today after wetting my bed."  
"Hmph."

Chibi-Usa turned away at this, her face red, as she heard Usagi turn the television on to an old Godzilla movie. It was bad enough she was living with strangers in a strange place; she also had to deal with a vain teenage roommate who constantly belittled her and did things specifically to embarrass her in front of everyone. No matter how hard Chibi-Usa tried, the eldest Tsukino child was always meddling in her affairs, always threatening to tell on her – or worse, spank her.

It was nerve-wracking, and the little girl sometimes wished she had picked another family to stay with. She was almost tempted to run off again, and not come back, if only to get away from Usagi, who clearly didn't like her. At one point she hadn't cared if it meant the the bad people would kill her, though after the battle hours before she had admittingly been a bit more grateful to be able to come back to the Tsukino house. But battle or no, out of everyone in Tokyo, no other person made her more angry – or more homesick.

_"I'll protect you."_

Just as a commercial break came on the television, she remembered Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon, the legendary beautiful warrior who protected the city before her mother became queen; the one her father told her of every night, and there seemed to be no end to the stories. The little girl remembered how she would always think about it when she was alone in the palace, taking her father's words and conjuring for herself the image of kind and wonderful protector who never gave up, who stood up and fought for everyone, even the outcast, with her friends. A person who seemed too wonderful to be real.

Yet Sailor Moon _was_ real. She had saved Chibi-Usa that very day, soon after she had run off.

_Sailor Moon..._

She turned to look back in Usagi's direction, who was shoveling the contents of the bowl into her mouth, and she frowned as she stared at the rice spilling onto the couch. Sailor Moon would have wanted Chibi-Usa to stay where she was and tough it out while they took care of the bad guys, especially after what had happened with the four sisters. And if Sailor Moon could handle that strange man who tried to kill them, if she could stand up to certain death, Chibi-Usa could surely handle the slovenly, selfish Usagi on her own.

"You want some?"  
"Huh?" Chibi-Usa looked up at Usagi and blinked. "What?"  
"Food." The steaming bowl of food was shoved under Chibi-Usa's nose. "Hungry. Are you hungry? It's donburi."  
"I..." Chibi-Usa's stomach grumbled as the smell filled her nose, as she hadn't eaten all day, though she wasn't sure if she wanted anything Usagi had eaten from. "I'm, uh, not hungry."  
"Mmm, ok. Suit yourself."

As Usagi began to have some more food, Chibi-Usa went to change the channel, but her hand stopped midway to the remote. It was unlike Usagi to offer food to her. Usually, she would hoard it all and refuse to share. She glanced towards her teddy bear, wondering why Usagi was suddenly being so generous.

"Welp," Finally, Usagi carelessly plopped the bowl down onto the coffee table and walked off without looking back. "I'm done. Night!"

_Hmph._ Chibi-Usa looked at the bowl and the scattered chopsticks Usagi tromped up the stairs and frowned. _Just like stupid Usagi to leave a mess..._

When she looked in the bowl, however, she was startled to find that there was still a good amount of food in the bowl - just enough for Chibi-Usa to eat. At first, she was suspicious, and hesitant to have any, especially after Usagi had offered it; with Usagi, there had always been a catch to go along with her offers.

A minute later, however, her stomach growled loudly, and the little girl suddenly felt a line of saliva dribble down her chin. Realizing she was simply too hungry to go without food anymore, Chibi-Usa took the bowl and chopsticks up into her arms and began to eat.

_Mmm...I may as well._ Chibi-Usa's mind wandered as she inhaled the rest of the rice and chicken, feeling much better as she did. _How did stupid Usagi know I was so hungry...?_

Soon after finishing the food, however, Chibi-Usa's gradually began to hurt. It was hard to keep them open without feeling dizzy, and she began to see two televisions, two Godzillas, and two television remotes. Quietly the little girl turned the TV off, only to find the dizzy feeling growing stronger as color dots of brown and red and yellow flashed in her eyes. She nearly hit her knee on the coffee table when she tried to stand.

_Oh no...!_

There was no way she could make it up the stairs in her new condition without alerting the rest of the house. Chibi-Usa gave a growl as she fell back onto the couch; an image of Usagi snuggling under the bedcovers, a malicious grin on her face as she celebrated her victory over the little girl, popped into her mind. Everything was made clear in that one moment - Usagi was going to have the room all to herself that night.

_Stupid Usagi..._ As the dizziness began to overwhelm her, Chibi-Usa lay down and closed her eyes, clutching her teddy bear. _I _knew_ she put something in it...!_

----------

Tick-tock. Two-forty five.

_Is she...?_

Usagi quietly sneaked back downstairs with a small blanket. On the coffee table was the empty bowl of rice, and on the couch a sleeping little girl, clearly exhausted from the events of the previous day. She held her teddy bear tightly, but otherwise she was relaxed, her being completely at peace for the first time in many days.

_"I'll protect you...I promise..."_

Sailor Moon had promised to protect the little girl, and Usagi intended to do her best to keep that promise. She certainly had problems with the little girl, and not a day went by that the two didn't fight over anything and everything under the sun, from mittens to Mamoru. Yet the fact remains that no matter how much Chibi-Usa got on the teenager's nerves, it didn't change the fact that Chibi-Usa was a little girl, in a place where she forced to live among people she didn't know or trust.

And unknown to Chibi-Usa, Usagi had been up all night as well.

_Someday..._

Quietly, Usagi spread the blanket over the little girl's still body. Chibi-Usa didn't move; it was clear the food did its work. It was just as well; if anyone knew how a good meal could make anyone fall asleep almost instantly, it was Usagi, and she was glad to see it had worked beautifully on Chibi-Usa.

_Someday...you'll finally be able to go home. I know it._

However, even knowing the little girl was asleep didn't diminish the fact that Usagi herself would still get no sleep that night, food or no food. The world was a dangerous place for Chibi-Usa, and the battle with Reubeus had only made that fact all too clear. There was too much to think about, too many people after the little girl, for Usagi to get a good sleep and not worry about what would happen next, even though Usagi and Chibi-Usa were not, in her mind, connected in any way but by accident, through the scheming of the enemy.

Nevertheless, as she started going back up the stairs with the empty bowl in her hand, Usagi couldn't help but think it would be well worth it in the end, and that the brat would wake up the next morning as if nothing had happened. The blonde even looked forward to the spat she would inevitably have the next morning with the pink-haired child.

_Good night, Chibi-Usa._

After all, it just wasn't right for a little girl to be up past her bedtime.


End file.
